Murali to support UDF in Panchayat elections

Warming up to the Congress in a bid to
seek re-entry, K Muraleedharan, Son of Veteran Congress
leader, K Karunakaran, today said he along with his followers
would be supporting the UDF in the
coming Local bodies election.

Kochi: Warming up to the Congress in a bid to
seek re-entry, K Muraleedharan, Son of Veteran Congress
leader, K Karunakaran, today said he along with his followers
would be supporting the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the
coming Local bodies election.

This decision will be conveyed to the Kerala PCC
leadership and UDF, Muraleedharan told reporters here.

A five-member sub committee has been constituted under
former MLA K P Kunhikanan to talk to UDF leaders, he said.

Murali said the candidates of his group should be made UDF
Independent candidates.

Muralidharan had been suspended for a six years from the
congress for anti party activities in 2005 after which he
along with his father formed the Democratic Indira
Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K). A year later, DIC-K merged with
the Nationalist Congress Party. However, when Murali expressed
desire to return to congress, he was suspended from NCP last
year.

On his re-entry into the Congress, he said the suspension
would be over by Mar 8 next year and he was hopeful that he
along with his supporters will be taken back into the party.

`Eight more months remain for the suspension to be over. I
will be able to come back`, he said expressing confidence.

There was no question of supporting the CPI(M) led Left
Democratic Front (LDF) in the Panchayat election due to `past
bitter experiences`, he said claiming that the front was
trying to woo his workers.

Replying to another query, he said the Panchayat elections
was different from Assembly and Parliamentary elections as
during the local bodies polls, people vote for the candidate
and not the party, he said.

All democratic parties should come together to fight
radical outfits like the Popular Front of India (PFI), which
is alleged to be behind the chopping of the right hand of a
college lecturer after he prepared a question paper which had
derogatory references to Prophet Mohammed.